July 2- Prince of Whales- Newburyport

Leaving our dock today, I knew I was under a lot of pressure to find whales. First of all, we were missing our trusted whale spotters, Willy and Pam, who would spend 99% of the trip on the bow searching for whales. Secondly, my parents and Nana were on board. Every time my family is aboard, we see really cool things.

As luck or mojo or karma would have it we did find really cool whales today! Our first stop was relatively close to shore, where we found two fin whales circling around, with about 50 Atlantic white sided dolphins with them. One whale was moving very slowly, while the other was acting a bit goofy- lunging at the surface and rolling on its side, but not feeding. It wasn't until our last look at these two that we realize this was a mother/calf pair! And this calf was really big!! The dolphins with these two were a lot of fun to watch. They were happy to bow-ride the snout of the mother whale, and dive right along side both of the huge whales. No fear at all in these little (7-9 feet long) dolphins!

Fin whale calf rolling on its side

Mother fin whale- to be identified

Mother and calf fin whales (the calf is to the left of the huge mom)

Mom fin whale surfacing with 2 dolphins bow riding her nose!

Atlantic white sided dolphins

As we continued on, we found lots more fin whales- some close, some far away) in the neighborhood. Then a spout appeared that looked a little different- a little smaller and rounder- this was a humpback whale! Although smaller than the magnificent fin whales, humpbacks are sometimes referred to as the clowns of the oceans. They are known for their aerobatics and close-to-boat approaches. Those occurrences are rare, though they certainly do happen. This particular humpback whale was traveling, and though it did not do any of the aerial behaviors that are common of its species, we were lucky enough to see its flukes (tail). The pattern of black and white identified it as Milkweed, a 10 year old humpback born to Zeppelin in 2000.

Humpback whale named Milkweed

As we started our journey home, several more whales spouted, both near and far. More fin whales were moving into the area! Another young humpback was spotted too, just to the east. The trip home seemed very quick as Intern Heather and I spent most of it talking with our curious passengers. Thanks to all of our return visitors. We hope to see you all out here with us again soon for another chance to see whales in the wild!


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